The single-serving pastries offer endless tasty options for home cooks
Let's face it: We live in a world of portable food.
But a person can only eat so many energy bars. And Hot Pockets? I don't think so.
So three cheers for the hand pie.
These single-serving pastries, sweet or savory, fried or baked, are increasingly popping up around Portland, at food carts and cafes, farmers markets and grocery store delis.
But why should pros have all the fun? Home cooks can turn out their own wholesome and tasty hand pies and serve them as a convenient make-ahead breakfast, lunch or dinner, or picnic basket treat.
Recipes included with this story:
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Though there's a strong tradition of fried pies around the world, a baked pie is the easiest type for a home cook. Once you have the pastry made, and the method down, you can improvise with whatever seasonal goodies you can get your hands on. Leftover sautéed greens, that last bit of beef stew, yesterday's potatoes or sautéed leeks -- it's all potential filling for a hand pie. And with rhubarb season here and many more seasonal fruits on the way, perfecting your hand-pie skills will be a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Much of the world calls hand pies meat pies or pasties (PAS-ties) and traces their origins back to at least 19th-century England, where they were a convenient lunch for Cornish tin miners. The pastry casing, as the story goes, was a convenient way to keep the filling warm and free of dirt; miners would hold the edges, eat the inside and discard the dough when they were done.
Cornish people who immigrated to northern Michigan brought the tradition to the States, but many cultures have a fondness for pies.
In Australia, they're a lunchtime staple, which is why Chris Powell and his wife, Sarah Curtis-Fawley, figured Portland might like them as well. The couple moved here from Australia and last year started making classic beef pies -- like a traditional pie, only in single servings -- and hand pies or pasties for farmers markets. They opened a shop, Pacific Pie Co. on Southeast Ankeny, in January.
After moving to Portland, Powell, a native Aussie, really missed pies, so Curtis-Fawley obliged with her own. "I just started making them, everyone loved them and it snowballed into a business."
Pie dough best bet for home cooks
Commonwealth countries -- even regions within those countries -- tend to have different crusts for hand pies, Curtis-Fawley says. "In England it tends to be much lighter and flakier, like a puff pastry. Different places in Australia and New Zealand, they use margarine rather than butter, which gives it a different mouth feel and flavors." Sometimes a hand-pie crust is yeasted, almost like bread.
We like the practicality of a traditional short crust, like a pie dough (see accompanying recipes). A rough puff pastry, where a butter-laced pie dough gets a couple of turns under a rolling pin for extra flakiness, is also a nice option, though time-consuming. And it's fine to use refrigerated commercial pie dough or frozen puff pastry.
Regardless of what type of dough or filling you choose, you should plan to freeze part or all of a batch of hand pies. Freezing helps set up the filling and crust so the outside is crusty and flaky and the inside perfectly cooked. The frozen pies also can go straight from the freezer into a hot oven for a quick dinner.
Fillings are infinitely flexible, and typically they reflect regional differences.
Which is what Kris Pennella tries to do with the hand pies (she calls them tarts) she makes for Portland's Little Pots & Pans. Pennella turns out 1,200 to 1,500 hand pies in any given week, building the fillings on local ingredients. Curried butternut squash is hugely popular when it's in season (which means from fall to the time the butternut purée in her freezer runs out). Roasted tomato, caramelized onion and goat cheese is another popular combination, made with locally grown tomatoes she roasts in late summer, packs in oil and freezes.
The conventional wisdom about hand pies is to watch the water content of the filling so it doesn't make the pastry soggy. But for some fillings, such as spinach, you want to leave some moisture, Pennella says. "If you squeeze the heck out of it, it will almost always burn" and become bitter.
Same for tomatoes, which should be moist, but not dripping. Roasted tomatoes are a great option because the flavor is concentrated, but be sure to drain off liquid before combining with the rest of the filling.
As for sweet hand pies, the arrival of local rhubarb is the perfect excuse to get baking. The golden rule with sweet hand pies is the same as savory: Always cook the filling before folding it up in the dough, says Julie Richardson, who long before she opened Baker & Spice in Hillsdale got her start selling fruit hand pies at Portland Farmers Market.
She still makes hand pies with whatever fruit is in season, starting with rhubarb now, up through apples in October. One of Richardson's favorites is peach hand pie, made with lots of vanilla in the filling. Juicy fruit is trickier, but the bakery uses a cornstarch slurry stirred into the cooked fruit to thicken the juices, she says.
Thicken, cool juicy fruit fillings
Richardson's suggested blueprint for any fruit filling is to mix sweetened fruit with 1 tablespoon cornstarch (no need to add cornstarch to apples, and you can add less to blueberries, which thicken with their own pectin); boil for 1 minute and add flavorings -- candied ginger, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon. Cool the filling completely before spooning it onto the pie dough, folding the dough in half and crimping the edges. And always pierce the top with a knife to allow steam to escape. Chill or freeze the pies for at least 20 minutes before baking.
To prevent leaks, always, always bake them in a very hot oven, either 375 to 400 degrees on convection setting, or 400 to 425 degrees regular bake, Richardson says. "The filling is going to want to steam up, so you need to have a higher temperature so your pastry sets before you filling has time to warm up and ooze all over the place."
For the best pies, follow these tips
Here are more hints for heavenly hand pies, be they sweet or savory:
- Fillings should be soft and moist but not wet, otherwise juices will make the crust soggy.
- Chop vegetables and other ingredients into small dice so they cook quickly and evenly.
- Always par-cook vegetables and other filling ingredients. Otherwise, the pastry browns up before the filling is fully cooked.
- Allow filling to cool slightly, ideally to room temperature, or it will soften the pastry dough.
- Don't overfill hand pies, or they'll burst at the seams. Save any leftover filling for another use -- or another round of hand pies.
- Before folding the pastry around the filling, brush edges with water or a mixture of 1 tablespoon water and 1 egg white. This will help strengthen the seal.
- Not into homemade pastry? You can substitute good-quality commercial refrigerated pie dough or frozen puff pastry; allow puff pastry to thaw in refrigerator for two to three hours before using. (Look for pre-made pastry with mostly or all butter. Local bakeries Grand Central and Baker & Spice also sell pre-made dough.)
- For best results, freeze the unbaked hand pies for 20 minutes before baking.
- For fast hand pies, cook fillings and make pastry ahead of time and refrigerate. Bring filling to room temperature before assembling and baking the pies. Or freeze the unbaked pies for up to three months, then bake them straight from the freezer with five to 10 minutes' extra time in the oven.
- Let hand pies cool for at least 10 minutes before eating, or serve at room temperature.
Leslie Cole: 503-294-4069;
Gimme pies
Here are a few places to buy a ready-made hand pie or pasty (rhymes with nasty, not hasty) around Portland:
Pacific Pie Co.
609 S.E. Ankeny St., Suite C
503-381-6157
Whiffies Fried Pies
(food cart)
Southeast 12th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard
503-946-6544
Saraveza
1004 N. Killingsworth St.
503-206-4252
Little Pots & Pans
Sold at Whole Foods and New Seasons markets, Market of Choice, Lloyd Farmers Market and coffeehouses around Portland
Baker & Spice
6330 S.W. Capitol Highway
503-244-7573
-- Leslie Cole